Congressional Hearing Lifts Veil on Broadcasting, Human Rights in N. Korea
Despite the passage of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, North Koreans are still faced with challenges preventing their freedom and accessibility to information, the Committee on International Relations addressed at a joint hearing Oct. 27.
Despite the passage of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, North Koreans are still faced with challenges preventing their freedom and accessibility to information, the Committee on International Relations addressed at a joint hearing Oct. 27.
Lifting the veil on the plight of refugees and the goals that have yet to be met through the human rights act and a 2004 bill that would increase U.S. funds for broadcasting to North Korea, the open hearing on Thursday revealed the lack of action taken to improve the human rights situation.
"But the law gives the U.S. government clear marching orders to assist these refugees," said Congressman Christopher H. Smith, chairman of the House committee on Global Human Rights, "and it is incumbent on the U.S. government to find ways to do so."
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Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) – which broadcast news and information to audiences worldwide, including those who are without access to full and free news media – assessed the difficulties of their airwaves reaching North Korea and the necessity for radios to be made available inside the media-controlled nation.
Daniel Southerland, vice president for programming for RFA, told members of the committee that they needed more funding, resources and people to "beef up" operations in China, Bangkok and other countries that refugees have been managing to escape to.
VOA's associate director for language programming, Kelu Chao, also stressed the need to expand the network where there are active North Koreans.
Facing a very difficult environment where media is tightly controlled by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, there have been attempts to "jam" radio broadcasting and to keep North Koreans unaware of anything outside of their country like "frogs inside of a well," as North Korean refugee Ma Soon Hee had stated.
Nevertheless, Chao said, "Our message is getting through loud and clear."
Providing coverage on current events across the globe, features on North Korean defectors and life analysis stories, the radio broadcasting networks serve to spread awareness on the lives of those suffering in North Korea and disseminate information to all parts of the world.
Such testimonies have increasingly come from Christian missionaries, said Southerland, many of whom also tell success stories of defectors reaching freedom.
North Korean refugees Ma and Cha Kyeong Sook shared testimonies of the brutal reality of human trafficking that has victimized women and children more commonly as well as their moments of successful escape.
Congressman Smith plans to hold an additional set of hearings on human trafficking and take steps to provide greater humanitarian assistance to North Koreans inside the "well."
